One of the singular technological achievements that sets us apart from generations before us is the ability to take mass amounts of selfies.

A recent study conducted at Florida State University supports the frequently uttered idea that selfies can be damaging to one’s personal relationships. The researchers found that when one’s selfies were negatively received on Instagram, it led to lower self-esteem in regard to body image and damaging effects on romantic relationships.

While it is tempting to use this as proof that the “selfie generation” is obsessed with their self-image and how it is received by others, this ignores the fact that it is the technological innovations which have left millennials reeling, not an inherent personality difference caused directly by existing in a different time period.

Humans have always loved pictures of themselves. Centuries ago, people would pay others to construct portraits, often to signify status or at least to portray a specific appearance. But while you can only paint a traditional self-portrait if you have that specific skill, anyone can take a picture. And since the invention of the photograph, people have taken pictures of themselves and increasingly so with further technological developments.

Therefore, the selfie “problem” is not on the young people of today, but merely the passing of time that divides generations. Taking a picture of yourself a few decades ago was doable, but it just wasn’t as feasible with the quality and quantity one can access today.

There’s the classic image of the past where the photographer insists on showing a group of people a slideshow of pictures, usually to the hopeless boredom of the audience. But presentations like that are becoming increasingly rare because now you can just upload the photo to Instagram, Facebook or other forms of social media, and let the audience dictate its viewing.

“You’re not a guest on someone else’s page, it’s their space and they just happen to be seeing your photos on their page, so they don’t have to go through any type of cordiality,” said Charisse L’Pree, an assistant professor in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, who gave an on-campus TedX talk on the psychology of selfies last year. “When you post something, you expect someone to like it.”

What was once a type of show is now a relationship, and this ease of presentation has taken power from the presenter and given it to the viewer. The study’s conclusions confirm this power dynamic, in finding that it can affect the photographer’s real life relationships because we haven’t yet learned how to handle that rejection of our body image.

“If you walk into a room and say hello and no one responds, it doesn’t really hurt your self-esteem because we’ve learned how to deal with that. If you walk into an online space and post a picture and nobody responds it hurts more because we’ve yet to figure out how to cope with that as a society,” said L’Pree.

This is the problem millennials face. The ease of sharing with today’s technology can pose as an unhealthy connection and investment in that sharing. The easier something is to do, the more likely one will do it, but the overindulging opens the photographer up to personal criticism.

In many ways, the progression of technology has allowed the ease of taking and sharing selfies, which is a great thing. However, most innovations have a dark side, and just because a thing can be done doesn’t mean it should – certainly not to the point at which the sharing of selfies is more likely to negatively affect you than a personal relationship with someone, which, of course, is sometimes hard.

Young people have many more tools than generations past, but they shouldn’t let those advantages define them.

Mark DiBona is a senior television, radio and film major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at mdibona@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @NoPartyNoDisco.

Published on January 28, 2016 at 1:36 am